Another year, another CES, and another pre-production laptop to test and enjoy. This year it’s a high-spec X280. The below is not a review – more of a quick survey of specifications and a look at the usual things that I find of interest. But first:

From time to time Lenovo sends me a gadget. They’re handy to have around – both for my own use and when trying to help out in the Lenovo forums. I do some testing and writing as well. Beyond the use of the laptop, I’m not otherwise compensated.

Professional images are Lenovo’s. Amateur snapshots are mine. Opinions are exclusively mine. I do not work for, represent, or speak for Lenovo.

Introduction

This X280 is the successor to the X270. I haven’t had any keyboard time with the earlier x270 but looking over its specs and documentation I’d call it a compact “conventional” laptop. The X280 moves more into the ultrabook range (non-removable battery, proprietary small Ethernet port…). Specifications and major differences between the ‘270 and ‘280 are called out below.

Note: all specifications here are based on currently available documentation and the evaluation X280 as delivered. I’ve done my best to check them – but this is preliminary. Please do not make a purchase decision based on what you read here without verifying yourself.

The Lenovo-branded PCIe SSD is fast. Wireless AC hooks up with my AC 1900 router at 867mbps. SSD partitioning is as expected for a machine running a Push-Button Reset preload. (The ADATA in Disk Management is a flash drive … I forgot to unplug…)

Intel VT-x was turned on by default in the test laptop’s BIOS. In my working life I did some *nix driver development and support. VMs were handy when coding and for occasional use of tools that weren’t available in windows (less of an issue now with Ubuntu & Bash on Windows). This i7 16GB laptop had no problems at all running multiple VMs.

Linux

I don’t often run Linux as a bare-metal install these days unless I’m testing a device driver (usually on a desktop). There are times when it’s useful to run a live distro for forensics and/or recovery – and there are lots of folks who simply prefer Linux on their daily driver.

Testing with a live Ubuntu 16.10 and 17.04 produced mixed results. (I’m staying away from 17.10 until the dust settles on the UEFI “corruption” problem. There seems to be a fixed kernel now, and it doesn’t seem to be an issue for ThinkPads – but better safe than bricked.)

A serious problem was lack of UltraNav input once booted to Ubuntu. The TrackPoint was completely unresponsive, and the touchpad would only occasionally respond. There’s a long thread in the Lenovo Linux forum on what seems to be a similar [edit: perhaps unrelated] issue. I’m confident that the open-source wizards will fix this eventually. For now I did my testing with my favorite accessory: a Lenovo compact USB keyboard/TrackPoint combo. It at least allowed some continued testing and may help when trying fixes in the future.

[edit 2018.01.20] A simple edit of the Ubuntu grub2 boot stanza gets the basics of the TrackPoint and touchpad working. Adding “psmouse.proto=bare” (without the quotes) to the linux line in the live flash boot stanza gets the basics of the TrackPoint and touchpad working The full grub2 stanza looks like the below. This is with Ubuntu 17.10.1:

I didn’t give things a very thorough workout but the basics – wifi, touchscreen, and SSD access – all seemed OK.

A Few Quick Tests

I haven’t had this unit long enough to do really exhaustive testing. I did make time to try some brief basic fiddling with USB-C accessories.

An Anker USB-C to USB 3.0 hub with GigE port worked fine. As did a CableMatters USB-C to HDMI adapter. I was able to run 3 displays – 720p TV, laptop display, FHD monitor – independently using the adapter and the laptop’s HDMI port.

I did not have time or appropriate displays to test resolution and refresh rate options.

Battery runtime looks to be 10-12 hours in my normal use mode: ~half screen brightness, ~half way on the performance slider, a few tabs open in FireFox, maybe an text editor running. It’s too soon to make a very accurate call on runtime.

The Last Word

As stated, this is more a quick survey than a review. I’ll edit and add as/when/if things change. In the meantime, I’m happy to try to answer questions as time and available gadgets permit.

I’ve also received a mechanical dock that works with the X280. It’s a “side dock” that uses the laptop’s regular USB-C, Thunderbolt, and Ethernet connectors. A look at that interesting design will come along in the fullness of time. There just weren’t enough hours before CES to get to the dock. I’m looking forward to it.

For now, here’s snapshot of the X280 parked in the mechanical Side Dock:

This wouldn’t be complete without a final comment about issues and unanswered questions: I don’t know if the RJ45 dongle will be included with customer-ship units. My test machine has balky TrackPoint buttons. The fingerprint reader is inconsistent. It also takes a minute or so to shut down. I ascribe these to pre-production hardware and software but won’t be able to verify until customer-ship machines are available (and I don’t know yet when that will be…) The Linux TrackPoint issue is a problem. For now.

[edit 2018.01.08] The above concerns have made their way to Lenovo engineering. Hoping for feedback – time frame unknown.

[edit 2018.01.20] A simple edit of the Ubuntu grub2 boot stanza gets the basics of the TrackPoint and touchpad working. See above.

[edit 2018.02.26] The laptop’s rearward USB-C port will support a -C to HDMI adapter but it is exclusive of the laptop’s HDMI port. This also applies to the basic dock’s Displayport which apparently connects via the rearward USB-C port.

As above, the laptop will support 3 displays: laptop monitor + HDMI + HDMI via adapter, but the adapter must be plugged into the forward USB-C port.

When in the basic dock the laptop’s HDMI port or the dock’s Displayport may be used – but not both.

Not the typical floating-in-tomato-sauce version. That’s not bad… this is better 🙂

4 red or yellow bell peppers. Green if you like but they are just unripe colored peppers and can be bitter.

1/2 cup of uncooked rice. White or brown. We’ve used white so far.

2 carrots peeled and chopped.

1 onion minced.

2-6 garlic cloves minced.

1 tsp chili powder.

1/2 lb lean ground beef.

2 tomatoes cored and chopped – seeded if you must…

1/4 cup chicken broth.

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese.

1 tbsp lemon juice.

1 seeded and minced jalapeno – for flavor, not heat. Optional.

Some might add 1 tbsp of tomato paste and 2 tbsp of minced parsley. We don’t.

It helps if the peppers, onion, carrots, jalapeno, tomatoes, and garlic come straight from your garden. If not, make do @ the super 😉

Trim the tops off the peppers, seed and core. Submerge in boiling salted (1 tbsp or so) water to cover and cook until they just start to soften. Maybe 5 minutes. Remove, drain, and let cool.

Bring the water to a boil again, add rice, cook until tender, drain and transfer to your working bowl.

Saute the carrots, onion, and jalapeno (if using) in olive oil until they start to soften. Add garlic, tomato paste (if using), and chili power and cook another 30 seconds or so. Don’t scorch the garlic.

Add the ground beef and cook while breaking it up until all is just browned through. Add tomatoes and chicken broth and cook until the tomatoes start to break down.

Add the beef mixture to the rice in your working bowl along with the chicken broth, lemon juice, parsley (if using), 3/4 cup of the cheese, salt and pepper to taste. Mix thoroughly.

Dry the inside of the peppers, fill with the mixture, top with the rest of the cheese, and place in a suitably-sized baking dish (so they don’t fall over…). Bake in a pre-heated 350F oven until heated through. 30 minutes or so.

One of my favorites, especially now when the garden provides potatoes, onions, and peppers. Goes great with grilled chicken, ribs, whatever floats your boat.

I’ll skip the measurements…

Spuds – chopped/diced/sliced per your whim – raw fried in olive oil.

When they’re ~ 5 minutes from done toss in chopped/diced/sliced sweet bell pepper and chopped/diced/sliced onion and turn the heat down a little.

I sometimes add garlic but be careful – it can scorch. The other day I did include some jalapeno with the bell pepper for a little added interest. Delish 🙂

A minute or so from done I like to sprinkle in some cumin and paprika.

Once it hits my plate I usually top with grated Parmesan cheese and salt + pepper.

[edit to add] Make a one-skillet meal out of it: add chopped spinach, cabbage, or kale then with the heat turned down make pockets and (gently) crack some eggs into them. (There’s no rule that says it couldn’t involve some bacon or sausage 😉 )

This is the original draft of a KB article written for the Lenovo forums. It may be old news, but I’ve only recently come across it. There are likely other ways to do this using the ISO instead of the .exe – perhaps grub2 + loop-mounting, grub2 + memdisk, geteltorito – but this is the “official” Lenovo approach.

Full disclosure: I haven’t yet actually had occasion to build the flash drive and test the BIOS update process.

Traditionally, ThinkPad BIOS updates have been provided for download in two formats: a Windows .exe installer, and an ISO that can be used to create a bootable CD. The CD version was useful for those who aren’t running a Windows OS, or who have a damaged main drive or OS that won’t boot.

These days, an optical drive is becoming a rarity – requiring the use of an external drive. Fortunately, with recent ThinkPad BIOS updates using a bootable flash drive has become an option. The instructions and tools are included in the Windows .exe. It’s necessary to run the 1st stage of the install to access them, so a Windows PC or virtual machine is required.

We’ll use a 1st generation X1 Yoga BIOS in this example. Be sure to use a BIOS .exe that matches your laptop model, not the one in this example.

The first step is to download the .exe for the BIOS installer desired. Start with the Lenovo main support page https://support.lenovo.com/us/en enter your laptop model in the search box, select the appropriate model from the list offered, navigate the Drivers and Software link to the BIOS download.

The way the .exe is built it’s necessary to run the first stage of the install to be able to access the contained files.

Locate the downloaded .exe and run it. You’ll be offered a target folder and the option to browse for a target folder of your choosing. Make a note of where the driver files are going and proceed.

The next phase of the process will ask to actually install the BIOS on the current PC or virtual machine. Don’t let it. Un-check the “Install ThinkPad BIOS Update Utility Now” check box and click Finish.

Now you can navigate to the installer files. You should see something like the below. Read and follow the instructions.